Community Policing and Problem Solving, Definition of

Traditional Policing Methods Under the Reform Era

From about 1930 to 1980, police reformers sought to remove the police from under the powerful political influences over police that existed from about 1840 to 1930 (known as the political era of policing) and to enhance the professional nature of their work. Therefore, police work was defined almost exclusively in terms of efficiency, and administrators sought to strengthen their control over rank-and-file officers. This new professional model—with police as “crime fighters”—demanded an impartial law enforcer who related to citizens in neutral and distant terms. The emphasis on professionalization also shaped the role of citizens in crime control. Similar to physicians who cared for health problems and teachers for educational problems, the police would be responsible for crime problems. Citizens thus became passive in crime control, their role becoming limited to calling police and serving as witnesses when asked to do so. The advent of the patrol car further removed the police from their neighborhoods, and foot patrol, which was common during the political era, was viewed as an unnecessary frill.

For all its shortcomings, under the previous political era, the police link to neighborhoods and politicians had been close. During the reform era, however, citizens were no longer encouraged to go to “their” police officers or districts; officers were expected to drive marked cars randomly through the streets, reactively respond to calls for service (CFS), and be typically evaluated by such measures as the numbers of arrests made, calls handled, and even the number of miles driven during a shift.

During the late 1960s, however, problems began to arise under the reform model, including the following:

• Crimes began to increase and research suggested that conventional police methods were not effective. The 1960s witnessed riots in several major cities; protests against the Vietnam War; assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader [Page 66]Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. During this period, many people and institutions questioned the police and their function and role.
• Fear of crime rose. As a result, citizens abandoned parks, public transportation, neighborhood shopping centers, churches, and entire neighborhoods.
• Many minority citizens did not perceive their treatment as equitable or adequate. They protested not only police mistreatment, but lack of police services.
• The antiwar and civil rights movements challenged the legitimacy of police. Students resisted police, minorities rioted against them, and the public began to question police tactics.
• Some of the concepts on which the reform era was founded were found to be without basis. Studies showed, for example, that emphases on random patrol and rapid response times did not equate to increased arrests and fewer crimes committed.

As Mark Moore and George Kelling observed in

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